RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the gov­ern­ment’s re­stric­tions, sev­er­al bar own­ers in South Trinidad are con­tin­u­ing to sur­rep­ti­tious­ly sell al­co­hol to cus­tomers dur­ing the COVID-19 lock­down.

Un­able to cope with the loss of in­come, some bar own­ers have opened food out­lets near their es­tab­lish­ments while oth­ers have been sell­ing drinks be­hind closed doors.

Po­lice have al­ready clamped down on some er­rant bar own­ers but now that the lock­down is go­ing in­to the sev­enth week, bar own­ers are call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to make spe­cial pro­vi­sions to as­sist them.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Jen­ny Har­ri­lal, the own­er of Jen­ny’s Bar said she could not blame some bar own­ers for the open­ing sur­rep­ti­tious­ly be­cause life has be­come very dif­fi­cult.

“It has been very bad. I am not rent­ing. It’s my own place but I have two Venezue­lans work­ing and the Chi­nese do­ing a roulette and we have a Play­whe booth. All five had to be sent home,” she said.

Asked if she knew of bar own­ers sell­ing qui­et­ly be­hind the counter, Har­ri­lal said, “They have their bills to pay and if they hide and do it, I wouldn’t vex. They have to live,” Har­ri­lal said.

De­spite her to­tal loss of in­come, Har­ri­lal said her ex­pens­es have re­mained the same.

“I have all my bills to pay. My phone will get dis­con­nect­ed if I don’t pay in the next five days. I am us­ing mon­ey from my sav­ings now. I am try­ing to help my work­ers as much as I can as well,” she added.

To sup­ple­ment her loss of in­come, Har­ri­lal, her hus­band and her son Ra­jiv have re­opened their roti-shop.

Mean­while, in Debe, a bar own­er who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said she has had no choice but to sell al­co­hol from her home.

“I keep the doors closed and I al­low on­ly five peo­ple in­side at a time,” she re­vealed. The source said she had no choice be­cause she had chil­dren to take care of.

“It is very hard for us. I can­not cope much longer with­out an in­come. The gov­ern­ment should make spe­cial pro­vi­sions for bar own­ers. Let us open and sell take away,” she added.

At Club 2011, bar own­er Denise Hen­ry ad­mit­ted to get­ting warn­ings from the po­lice to de­sist from sell­ing liquor. Hen­ry said she could not af­ford to pay a hefty fine so she has not been sell­ing any al­co­hol.

“We can’t open at all.  We have our bills to pay and we have had to de­pend on our sav­ings,” Hen­ry said.

She added that she pays $10,000 per month in rent.

“I do not know if the land­lord will want me to pay the full rent or half. I have been run­ning this bar for two years and this is the most dif­fi­cult pe­ri­od I’ve ever ex­pe­ri­enced,” she said.

She said she did not think open­ing the bars for take-away ser­vice made any sense.

“Its al­co­hol we talk­ing about. Peo­ple will want to sit down and lime when they drink­ing,” she added.

She ex­plained that op­er­at­ing a bar dur­ing COVID was a se­ri­ous vi­o­la­tion and peo­ple should re­al­ize that bars should be re­opened on­ly when it is safe to do so.

At Da­gan’s Bar in Pe­nal, the own­er said de­spite the COVID-19 lock­down, bar own­ers were mak­ing it through.

“We cop­ing. We have to cope. We have no choice. So far we man­ag­ing OK,” he said.

But Al­lan De­onar­ine, the own­er of Jill’s Bar at Batchya Vil­lage, Pe­nal said many bar own­ers who had to pay rents were fac­ing a dif­fi­cult time.

Like Hen­ry,  he agreed that a take­away ser­vice will not work for bar es­tab­lish­ments.

“Peo­ple may go di­rect­ly to the su­per­mar­ket. If bar own­ers re­open now it will be too much of a risk for the bar em­ploy­ees and the pub­lic,” he said.

De­onar­ine said five em­ploy­ees had to be sent home af­ter his bar was shut down on March 23.

“This is a fam­i­ly-owned busi­ness and we are re­ly­ing on sav­ings right now. If every­one fol­lows the guide­lines of the gov­ern­ment, maybe bar own­ers will be moved up to an ear­li­er phase rather than be­ing closed un­til June,” De­onar­ine added.

He said he was thank­ful that Carib Brew­ery had of­fered to take ex­pired prod­ucts at half the cost.  

Bars and casi­nos are un­like­ly to be opened be­fore June. Dur­ing his press con­fer­ence last Mon­day, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced the dif­fer­ent phas­es for re­open­ing.

While pri­vate-sec­tor con­struc­tion will re­open be­tween June 7- 20, and malls, cin­e­mas and beach­es will be re­opened in Phas­es 5 and 6, Row­ley said the re­open­ing of oth­er com­mer­cial busi­ness­es oth­er than those men­tioned above, will be de­ter­mined at a lat­er date.